Fates 46: The Chapter That Never Ends

Fates 46 sneak peek after the break.

:)

Frea

By mutual and silent agreement, Chuck and Sarah decided to leave Casey to his own devices, which turned out to be pretty easy. The other man didn’t leave his office, save for a forty-five minute trip to the dojo to beat the ever loving daylights out of Frank. Chuck checked on him periodically on Castle’s security feed, but apart from an annoyed expression that wasn’t too far from his default look, Casey didn’t appear to be any different.

“I’m bored,” Sarah said, walking into his office and plopping unceremoniously into the spare desk chair.

Chuck looked up from the financials he’d been paging through. He’d been drinking water like a man dying of thirst, and it finally felt like it was kicking in. The text on the computer screen felt less like it was trying to punch him in the eyeballs at any rate. “Do you want me to entertain you?”

“No, I just felt like letting you know I was bored.” Sarah swung her feet up onto the desk and leaned forward over her legs to tap a few keys on the second keyboard. The second set of monitors, which Chuck wasn’t using currently, as he didn’t have to flash today, sprang to life with the feed from the Grand Saville. “You don’t mind me working from in here, do you?”

“Not at all.”

“Good.” Sarah leaned back. “Poke me if I fall asleep.”

“Gotcha. Nothing exciting from our Russian buddies?”

“They’ve got worse hangovers than you do. Most of them have been asleep all morning.” Sarah leaned forward again, this time to grab the pretzels Chuck had been munching on, and had consequently forgotten. “Any luck on the financials?”

“Definitely some sketchy characters among this group, but I can’t really confirm anything from just the financials alone. I’m starting to think they may just be here for a wedding. You’d think they’d pick some place a little more tropical or picturesque.”

“Uh-huh.”

“I mean, this group can clearly afford something much nicer, if they’re staying at the Saville. Why not Fiji or something?”

“Maybe Ilsa doesn’t want a beach wedding.”

“I guess. But that’s the weird thing.” Since Sarah looked completely comfortable, and he could use a break anyway, Chuck pushed his chair back to prop his feet on the desk. He reached over and snitched a few pretzels from the bag. “All of the wedding guests seem to be from Victor’s side, not Ilsa’s. In fact, I did some searching, and she doesn’t have any family.”

“None at all?”

“It’s like she didn’t exist before Rome.” At least, he thought it was Rome. Casey’s story about meeting Ilsa was still a little fuzzy thanks to the amount of alcohol imbibed at the time. “No records whatsoever.”

Sarah tilted her head, obviously considering this. “The government, try as they might, doesn’t always keep the best records, especially since Ilsa is Eastern European. And she did hook up with an NSA agent there, which would definitely put her on their radar and could account for it. And as far as your guest problem goes, I don’t know, I think when you date somebody, your friends might become mutual?”

“Oh, so Morgan is your best friend now?”

“No offense to Morgan, but God, no.”